Pew Research: Sharp Partisan Divisions in Views of National Institutions

Republicans and Democrats offer starkly different assessments of the impact of several of the nation’s leading institutions – including the news media, colleges and universities and churches and religious organizations – and in some cases, the gap in these views is significantly wider today than it was just a year ago.

While a majority of the public (55%) continues to say that colleges and universities have a positive effect on the way things are going in the country these days, Republicans express increasingly negative views.

A majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (58%) now say that colleges and universities have a negative effect on the country, up from 45% last year. By contrast, most Democrats and Democratic leaners (72%) say colleges and universities have a positive effect, which is little changed from recent years.

More here: http://www.people-press.org/2017/07/10/sharp-partisan-divisions-in-views-of-national-institutions/

It's interesting how quickly and recently Republicans' opinion of college education have shifted. Was there something that changed withing colleges in 2015, or is this just because Trumpism and the Alt-Right have changed their thinking? Much like with people's opinion of Russia.

LOL @ "Colleges and Universities." There's no way to sugarcoat it - that is ****ing sad.

Party of Stupid

Yeah, I actually lol'ed irl when I saw that.

Edit: But now I am throughly disturbed by it. I was worried that Trump's victory was a sign of increasing anti-intellectualism, and here we are.

The shift is probably coming as a result of the recent "college" protests particular Occupy wall street and BLM , not to mention the stories surfacing about the snowflakes wanting all kinds of safe spaces, re-segregation and other more pointless demands.

And of course Trump had an impact,

@Maroxad: No joke. For years I brushed this trend off as existing largely within fools on the fringe, but we can clearly no longer hand wave this away. This is indeed the party of stupidity.

And it's a form of self inflicted stupidity.

Republican's 60% disapproval is definately outright disgusting, but I am also concerned about the 20% dislike from democrats as well. But man, party of stupidity indeed.

SJW/Liberal Breeding grounds, I thought those were just from the fringe as well... but it may have been more mainstream than i feared.

I am not a fan of safe spaces and trigger warnings. But the hysteria surrounding those are massively blown out of proportion. And the good things coming from universities and colleges make more than up for it.

That chart tells you everything you need to know about why well-adjusted people do not take Republicans seriously.

Childish safe-space protests at colleges around the country certainly are not helping (Milo and Berkeley), but neither is Trump, who has taken every opportunity to attack our institutions for nothing but his own selfish interests. **** that man, and **** the influence he's held on his supporters dumb and naive to believe that he's doing so not for his own benefit, but instead in the interests of the nation. Anyone who thinks Trump has any greater interest aside his own is a fool beyond hope.

The college bar is surprising. Besides some schools that make headlines for safe places and racism, I thought colleges overall were normal.

I don't know if it was clickbait but there was a wave of articles about all black graduations or a black student forced to share valedictorian with a white student.

Yeah, the 20% mark is disheartening, for sure. Hopefully it at least holds steady rather than trends downward because if this becomes the majority opinion of the population at large...

Reminds me of Rick Santorum's infamous speech.

36% at large for the whole US population.

Thankfully, it looks to be rather steady on the democratic side, if not declining slightly. While the approval is inclining. But overall, that still looks like a wave of anti-intellectualism is coming where being stupid is fashionable.

The focus on "safe spaces", college riots, and trigger warnings is silly. Those things are in a very, very, very small minority of universities. Anyone whose opinion on high education is lowered because of that is rightfully so a moron.

It may be a small minority of a university, but it fills up 90% of the news stories about universities, so if anyone is a moron is not the person who follows the medias stories, after all people judge trump based on rumors in NYT and Washout-post.

In the case of a small percentage of the unfavorable opinion I'd say it can be the debt incurred and the fact that jobs aren't then at graduation. I can't say that is the problem with conservatives though since that number is too large. I image it's their leader and his lack of intellectual pursuits, his attack on American institutions, or those who follow that party just aren't invested in educational pursuits.

colleges are totally left-leaning brainwashing factories.

in my physics class I learned that the magnetic forces on a moving charge follow the right hand rule because they're dirty republicans.

A majority of the GOP think college has a negative impact on the country? That is too disturbing to be true.

Indeed. Those are a small minority of universities and colleges. But bad news attracts attention and it is no surprise how the alt-right dunces on youtube are overrepresenting them and blowing those stories way out of proportion. With trivial incidents become breaking news, the actual scandals get ignored at large.

That doesn't really change my point, though. If someone is dumb/gullible enough to be fooled by charlatans on YouTube, that's on them.

Also, can we stop using the term "alt-right"? It's a blatant attempt at rebranding from neo-nazis and white supremacists into something more benign and you're too smart to fall for that trap.

College bad, megachurch good. What's it like to be the medieval throwback in a world where the common cold no longer kills?

This. I've been attending Ohio State; one of the largest public universities in the country, for two years now, and all this talk of safe spaces and trigger warnings is hardly ever brought up or even mentioned among the professors and classmates that I've had.

Hell, I've seen hundreds, if not, thousands of people walk around campus wearing Cleveland Indians shirts and hats with the controversial Chief Wahoo logo on them, and I have yet to see anyone be stopped and berated for wearing such clothing.

The honest to god truth is that most of us are focused on getting shit done and trying to pass our classes. The incidents that you hear about come from an extremely small minority that don't speak for everyone that attends that certain college.

Well yes, if someone is actually stupid enough to be fooled by the youtubers, that is definately on them. But problems must be identified before they can be tackled ;)

And no. By repeatedly using "alt-right" for negative correlations. The alt right term will sound bad, as in something you dont want to associate with, just like neo-nazi or white supremacist... and then it would be hilarious to watch them either admit their pettiness or scurry to find a new name.

You guys should actually follow the links and read the detail because the inference in some of your posts is that poor uneducated republicans are anti-intellectual.... yet poorer Republicans scored higher.... and there was little difference between the most educated and least educated Republicans. So there is clearly a lot more behind this than party of stupid and other nonsense some of you have posted.